Underground London: A Stroll in the Gilded City's Underbelly

Author: (English) Smith
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: London has inspired many writers, but the book before you is a bit special—it explores the life and history of the city from below ground. The author meets workers digging tunnels in an underground vault of a church and then travels with them through many parts of the city: ancient riverbeds beneath famous streets, tunnels beneath Hampton Court used by a king's mistress as a secret passage, Victorian sewers, government secret underground bunkers, cellars filled with strange treasures, abandoned underground stations, disused postal underground transport tracks, and secret rooms beneath Westminster Palace where famous conspiracies were planned. The author's task is to make the "past" resonate like a bass note behind the "present" melody. And by "past," it is meant a consciousness—to understand that it is all the dead London that has given birth to this eternal favorite. —Ford Madox Ford, The Soul of London
London has inspired many writers, but the book before you is a bit special—it explores the life and history of the city from below ground. The author meets workers digging tunnels in an underground vault of a church and then travels with them through many parts of the city: ancient riverbeds beneath famous streets, tunnels beneath Hampton Court used by a king's mistress as a secret passage, Victorian sewers, government secret underground bunkers, cellars filled with strange treasures, abandoned underground stations, disused postal underground transport tracks, and secret rooms beneath Westminster Palace where famous conspiracies were planned.